Since the launch of WoTLK Classic Gold World of Warcraft , Blizzard has slowly sanded off the rough edges of Azeroth. It's still filled with deadly dungeons, gruelling raids, but nowadays there's a calmer, more welcoming world. World of Warcraft Classic aims to correct that and bring Azeroth safe again, despite having some of the latest luxury features.

Blizzard has released a release schedule for World of Warcraft Classic, in addition to a closed-beta and a number of stress tests that will be conducted prior to the game's release in August. The recent hands-on experience with WoW Classic showed a recognizably sparse edition of the game, with basic quest tracking a bit less clearly marked. This is a WoW intended for players who have played it since the very beginningand want to recreate that experience.

Production manager Patrick Dawson and WoW Classic lead engineer Brian Birmingham explained the motivations behind this bold retrofitting of the popular MMORPG and the benefits they'd like to see it bring to the fans.

"The community members said we want Classic WoW. When we looked at the game, it was an environment that had crashes as well as hacks to teleport. The game didn't have the same quality of the game that Blizzard is today," Dawson told P2Pah. "Well, what if we used our modern infrastructure? Do we have the ability to buy WOW WoTLK Classic Gold retrofit this? We set off on an eight-week journey to find out what that universe was."